froggy

serious? I haven't read the manual yet, but demo guy said can leh. Wow, think I better go and read, don't want to strain my machine ... but actually even full load, I don't really load full, more like slightly under 3/4 - so maybe ok hor? self consolation ... thanks for telling me .. will go read manual and compare notes ok

And finally, the kitchen, where the bulk of reno cost goes to! Better say it's nice hor, otherwise I xin tong ... but ... omg, think better don't post first, so super messy and badly taken now that I am looking at the downloaded photos, and dunno which one to upload to photobucket lei?? Tonight take again ok .. but now just a very quick preview of the not-so-messy part .. pai seh the Brandt hood and hob view hall into kitchen - haha, yes, it's steamboat again ok, folks, that's all for now ... enjoy!

just went to measure - bed end to wall slightly more than 30". If wall mount, allow for about 3" to 4" protrude from wall. that is if no tv feature wall. If you are planning to have that, then please add on ... that's why contractor says best to do simple on that wall. Another point - choose a divan, don't go for those with very elaborate edges. Will definitely eat up all yr walking space on all 3 sides of the bed!

Next, my girls' bedroom and studyroom For this room and the next, no build in furnishing done. This arrangement is intended to be temporary, so everything is bought off the shelves for easy portability and rearrangement when needed. Paint colours are the girls' choices, though. single storage beds Actually wanted to have a place a side table between the two beds, but not possible else cannot open wardrobe. Also did not want to flush bed against the window wall, since we prefer a proper passage to access the bed and windows. So this looks like the only feasible arrangement - thanks to hdb for their superb design wardrobe That's 2 units of wardrobe - dimension is perfect as they fit nicely into the wall - no wastage of space. And a sliding wardrobe is a must - too tight to open a casement door otherwise! once again, curtains in their bedroom Now to the studyroom. These 3 units of bookshelves, again, fit the entire wall nicely. The one on top is from our old house - still good - but no place to put liao - so ended up on top!!! And of course, the place where I get my daily dose of RT - pardon the mess! Did I say 90% of things in the house are mine??? Study table I love the study tables - beautiful standalone unit complete with racks for their barang barang, and shelving for their files and books! Photo was taken in the day, was a little too glaring and pulling the curtains did not help much, since we had chosen a thinner fabric for this room. Will try to retake the photos at night for comparison.

Finally got down to taking pictures of the house, albeit still rather messy and need some tidying up .. In the mbr, we only did the wardrobe and simple shelving for the TV wall, since the length of the room is quite limited. mbr wardrobe The chest of drawers are on castors, so that we can easily move it when aircon servicing needs to be done. We don't like the idea of servicemen stepping on our furnishing. At first, thought of building full height wardrobe to cover the window above aircon ledge, so servicemen sort of go through the wardrobe to access the balcony, like the wardrobe in Narnia. But that is worse, they can see all that's in the wardrobe!?!? I am a very private person ... mbr TV wall this is suggested by contractor. Due to space limitation in front of the bed, just build a box to hide the power and tv points, and narrow shelves for players etc. I liked the idea, simple and functional. and of course, the curtains by Mr Chew the picture is not doing justice to the storage bed frame, but it's certainly one of the best things I have purchased! Show you a photo of the bedframe taken in the showroom

know what? I thought the flash 40 means 40 min, but yesterday I actually timed the washing - less than 30min done liao! Very very happy bc energy saving (hopefully). So far, we have had 2 previous front loaders, and the half load fastest is 30 min. Imagine this one can do full load at under 30!

Thanks hippo! Totally agree with you - total freedom to be in own home once again But now abit fanatic about cleanliness and in "protecting" the flooring. New mah - but let's see how long this will last???

bearlyn you want the boxes or not? I passed the first load to a relative's neighbours who are moving, now cleared another batch of boxes, but they enough liao. Looks like I really have alot of stuff!?!?!

ha ha .. better try to get it done, bc if drag on, it will become very sian, then just don't feel like unpacking liao .. and store in storeroom lor when we moved into my first house at hougang, I did not unpack everything, just place the boxes (unopened) in the storeroom racks. And more than 10 years later, when we are moving out of there, the thiings have become antique liao, still beautifully packed! So this time round, I force myself, die die also must unpack ... we ended up discarding alot of things .. hubby was not around when I was packing up, and I'm the kind who likes to keep everything - he said I siao - pack, pay to store, pay to move, then throw! ?!?!? But of course, back then it was an EA, so we had lots of space and only one baby. Now, it's with 2 girls and only 4 rooms, so guess it's a case of being forced by circumstances. Have fun unpacking!

woo .. thanks .. no choice, cannot cook yet, so steamboat the best .. 2 days of steamboat liao, .. next week really must start cooking

Hey banned, mine also 30 x 60 - no prob - I think it's not the size of the tiles, but an issue of workmanship, so don't worry ok .. my old house ceiling leak, so share share repair cost with upstairs. But the upstairs one pay more, we lesser

ha ha, couldn't agree more. That's why we ended up most of our stuff from them too!

Review 5 - Brandt Washer and Dryer (WFE0877A and EFE118A) - Mega kallang Initially wanted an electrolux - simple reason that our old electrolux washer served us for more than 10 years - so can definitely trust this brand. Our only condition is to have a minimum 6kg machine that is fully manual, or at most semi. Want to avoid digital control and panels as much as possible - our previous digital washer lasted only 2 years before we had to change the motherboard. And even then, it is showing signs of falling ill again .. The sad discovery is that Electrolux does not hold such a model .. so was recommended Brandt by salesman at Mega. Don't understand why too - he is a all-Brandt guy - from the washer/dryer/hood/hob/oven - everything recommend Brandt. I guess we were ok with it too, since it's also european made? And it takes a 7kg load! To top it off, Brandt also comes with a 8kg fully-manual contolled dryer! I am old fashioned - loved its size and easy-use right away! And so the machine arrived - the demonstrator came and gave a very detailed explanation on the working of the washer (dryer is idiot-proof ), and we started using it. Cool! Washer has a flash 40 function - takes only 40 min for a full load! And dryer works great too, esp since the place is still so full of dust (now upstairs renovating!?!?) so a bit difficult to hang out the clothes to dry. Now I can have clean, dry and comfortable clothes that feels great fresh from the machine! Woo, how I love these two big boxes! But now, waiting to see this month's bill - hope no major heart attack!

hi everyone! Thanks for all support in reading my blog. Coming to the end of the adventure and slowly settling in my new home now, I felt that I've learnt lots from RT, and def hope my posting will also benefit others! Hubby asked if I will still visit RT since reno has all been done? Without even thinking, my reply was "I'm hooked!" So, yes, yes, got lots of pix to post, and stories to share. But must yi bu yi bu lai ... Yesterday, the glass supplier just did the final adjustments to the glass and mirror, today skirtiing touch up will be done. Hopefully the painting touch up can also be completed within this week ... Tomorrow the electrolux demonstrator is coming - hopefully I can start baking again shortly!

That is different from my experience. I got my toilet bars and small accessories from Poh Seng. Very nice service from the lady even though the items may not amount to much. Also got a discounted price from what's listed, though not alot. The best part is - I did not even ask for it because I thought paiseh to ask since amount is not big! GR link, though, is the shop I got most of my stuff. I think can't really compare prices here, bc I find GR's products abit classier than Poh Seng's? Hence cost abit more. But that's just my opinion after shopping almost the whole stretch of jln besar from poh joo to chuan heng.

Thanks duckie Don't remember seeing this kind of lid rack in ikea though - did you get it fr the tampines branch? I like yr reno and finishing of yr place - very inviting and down to earth!

wow hippo yr house is really nice - very warm and cosy! Congrats!

hi banned congrats! finally it's yr turn ... btw yr toilets are really classic man! Really looking forward to see the "after" pix!

Had our first real meal on sunday too - steamboat - the easiest to prepare, since the kitchen is still somewhat incomplete yum yum!

Review 4 - StoreRoom Rack - Yee Sin Needed the store room rack to be up before we can do any proper packing. Otherwise things just keep being pushed one one place to another - so advice for all is to have that done either towards the end of reno, or to have that done first thing after hand over. Ours is a "joint effort" by contractor and ourselves - thanks! - he offered us a standard one, but to maximise the store room, we extended it to fit 2 walls, plus added another tier. Also we were fortunate, because another client called to postpone a big order, so boss is able to install for us the day after we confirmed the order! Perfect timing! Again, the 2 installers are experts - working at lightning speed, and completing the task within less than half an hour. There was great coordination too, for though there is little communication, both know when and what to do next! Off they went with their simple, yet fully equipped tools, complete with a fan so neatly resting on the trolley handle - bc it's so hot in the bomb shelter! This is definitely done through experience! Very impressive!

TV TV on the wall TV arrived too, much to the excitement of all other 3 members of the family! First, the samsung team delivered the TVs, then i had to call the installer to come down!?!? When I tried to do so, his phone was off?!?!?! So I had no choice, right? Got to call office to ask .. office must have told him off, bc he retuned my call and asked why I never call him directly?!?!? anyway, to cut the story short, the TVs were finally installed before the day ended. Phew! oops, forgot to take a pix of the TVs on the wall!?!?

Review 3 - Curtains - Mr Chew Another highly recommended one! From selection, to sewing, to installation, to cleaning up - all beautifully done! Can't remember if I had mentioned earlier, but on meeting day, Mr Chew came with a trolley full of fabric samples. At first, we were excited bc got so many to choose from, but after looking at a few books, we sort of resigned and asked him to recommend. He will look at the wall colours, floor, furnishing etc and make suggestions - constantly holding up the sample in the sun, and showing different combination of day and night curtain fabric for us to see the effect. Now that the curtains are up, we can tell that he has good colour sense makes good recommendation! The house immediately feel so warm and cosy once the curtains are up! Not only does he have a good eye for colours, sewing is also immaculately done by Mrs chew. Best of all, on installation day, we do not need to worry about dust - they use a piece of cloth to protect the floor, the drill is connected to a vacuum so all dust get sucked off right off. After everything is done, Mrs Chew removed all remnants, plastic bags etc, so the place is back to its original condition, plus the curtains. This is a plus point for me, bc I absolutely hate those contractors etc that leaves things behind for me to throw. Good job, Mr and Mrs Chew!

Next, curtains .. Mr Chew's gears mbr curtain nicely folded pleats Nice!

Gas is turned on! So fianlly we can cook - but - looks like still have to wait - bc we wanted to have the glass up before doing anything else ..

Review 2 - Girls Furnishing - Lilian Construction This is a little furniture shop tucked in a ulu corner of a housing estate. We happen to chance upon it because it was near the house we rented. What does the name tell you? Some simple trading company, right? Totally not impressed with it initially. Infact, for the girls, we went round many many shops and showrooms - what we wanted were something simple, functional, sturdy yet not too costly. At the moment, the two girls are sharing the two rooms - one for study and one bedroom. We suspect that in a few years, they may each want a room of their own - so such "temporary" furnishing may be the best option. Somehow, all the other shops have an item that we liked, but not another, but this one - has everything that fits our specs and our bill! After talking to the lady boss, we were directed to their factory/warehouse for more selection. That is where we were really caught by surprise - the boss can even do make to measure study tables, shelves etc. We spent such a long time there, teling him our ideas, and he sketching out the various designs, discarding those he thinks are not workable. Very patient guy, I must say, because it was way past 5.30pm when we arrived! Despite the attractiveness of the proposals, we still decided to pick up a few off-the-shelf items as their promotional prices are just too good to miss. Again, though delivery was a little late (and I later learnt that it's bc they was a misunderstanding bc we kept changing the date), all was installed ever so quickly. Within less than an hour, the girls had a new set of everything, and could not wait to do their beds and unpack their books and stuff! Another good job! Highly recommended!